Make sure you check out the link above to Bubba’s Sporting Memorabilia, the latest bid is AUD$400 for a Steve Waugh signed photomontage.

Well what can you say the Wallabies are in a full on slump, the knives are out and everyone is ducking for cover. Journalists (from www.rugbyheaven.smh.com.au) Greg Growden and Spiro Zavros have been wielding some superb Sheffield (Knives), really getting stuck into Eddie Jones and George Gregan. Gregan must know what a sheep feels like sliding the shute and waiting for the butcher to wield his knife. Growden hints that he has it on good authority that the ARU though publicly supporting Gregan are actually working behind the scenes to have Gregan ousted after this weekends final Tri-Nation’s match in Auckland.

Who is going to back the Wallabies this weekend in Auckland? Possibly just the newcomers to Rugby who fill up the stands at the Test Matches and really don’t know much about the game, the same dingbats who boo opposition kickers when they line up for a goal. It is all doom and gloom amongst long time Rugby people like Dave and Bruce who are regulars on my message board. Dave and Bruce seem so depressed I think they need counselling, I am worried they are going to self-harm or slash up.

I must say I have never seen the Wallabies so devoid of ideas, lacking in intensity and personnel. I thought we were in real trouble prior to the 2003 World Cup when England monstered us in the June Test in Melbourne. But Eddie Jones and his staff to their credit, worked systematically on improving all the areas the Wallabies were deficient in. The Wallabies certainly surprised me with their win over the All Blacks and World Cup Final appearance.

This year is another story, four Test losses in a row and heading towards a record 5th Test lost. I have seen Wallaby teams that get belted in the set pieces and then come back and achieve parity a week later. This year is different; we have been hammered up front in the Tri-Series and just can’t seem to do anything to arrest the problem. The scrum has been on roller skates, the lineout indifferent and the safest place to be in the world is at the bottom of a Wallaby ruck, no one will put a boot on you. The Wallaby forwards have been woefully soft so of course Gregan has been getting hammered.

I don’t expect anything to change this week in Auckland; I fully expect to see the 8 Wallaby forwards get shunted around the park all evening. I feel sorry for the Wallaby supporters who have booked and paid for their trips, expect no mercy in Auckland; it is pay back time for All Black supporters. They will really stick the Sheffield in, as they have had years of disappointment with the All Blacks notorious World Cup choking expeditions.

Where to from here? Well the expanded four Super 14 format will eventually help the Wallabies cause, unfortunately in the near future Queensland will remain woeful and also possibly Perth. Currently Eddie Jones has 3 tight head props to pick from for the Wallabies, next year he will have 4 with the inclusion of Perth. Graham Henry has nearly double the players to select from at the moment with 5 Super 12 franchises; he has 5 tight head props playing top class rugby. Queensland is really dragging the chain in Australian Rugby, a woeful club competition means that the Reds and the Wallabies have less and less players coming through from the Sunshine State. Sydney is holding the fort supplying the bulk of players for the Waratahs and Brumbies and also significant portions of the Perth and Reds playing rosters.

The Queensland dilemma has to be put right, recognised as one of the strongest provinces in the world and now reduced to a joke. Teams used to dread playing at Ballymore, now it is just a walk in the park. I watch the Super 12 games and I see a bunch of school kids in the Reds jumper getting hammered by the opposition. Queensland used to dominate up front all the time; Ballymore was seen as a very hard place to get a win against the Reds. Australian Rugby needs a strong Queensland team, hope they do something about it.

Should Eddie Jones go? Well coaches have been given the punt for losing a lot less matches. Might be time for a change, Spiro Zavros certainly thinks so. His articles have been dishing it up nicely, asking questions like “Why has Eddie gone through so many assistant coaches?” also questioning the high pressure environment Eddie has built up around the Wallabies, you can only do it for so long as Spiro says. My opinion is that Eddie is a very smart and astute coach, I am sure he could think his way out of the current crisis. Unfortunately he just does not have the cattle at the moment to work with. This is really a structural problem in Australian Rugby and not something that can be changed overnight. Australian Rugby used to need NSW and Queensland playing well, for the Wallabies to put out a good team. In the current playing environment, the Wallabies will need 3 of the 4 Super 14 franchises performing well for the Wallabies to put out a competitive side. This means everything from juniors through to clubs in each province will have to function at optimum levels.

Here in Singapore the Club season is in full swing with Bedok Kings on top of the Premier Table. This is the same club that 10 Plates Rong and Captain Rong play for. National Tighthead Prop Mark Lee also plays for Bedok; he said he impersonated a hooker on the weekend in their 10-9 win over Wanderers. Captain Rong was in Bangkok with me on the weekend with the National 7’s Team. The National 7’s Team played in a mini-7’s tournament and did well losing 19-15 to the National Thai Team in the semi-final, Coach Tom Browne is pleased with their progress. Captain Rong was most upset that his favourite bar in Bangkok was closed down, ‘Obsessions’ is a wonderful establishment where the ‘ladies’ have unusually large hands and deep voices, I honestly don’t know why he goes there.

Results from the poll “Is the Springbok Phase Play Rush Defence Legal ?” was overwhelmingly in favour of the Boks and their Rush Defence being legal. Check out the new poll on Eddie Jones’s coaching.

Myself and Andy having a chat			Coaching the lads in Jakarta
	Paul Quaglia auctioning Andy McIntyres's jersey?	Singapore Rep and Bucks President Martin Wiliams

My good mate Peter Fab’s Fenton is re-releasing his two great Rugby films.
The Running game ( 1981) and The African Campaign ( 1992) are the only two documentaries ever made on Wallaby Rugby tours. Made by feature film makers with a great love of the game they are exceptional social documents. Much more than a series of interviews and television highlights, these films put the viewer ‘on tour.’

THE RUNNING GAME
The long tour of the United Kingdom and Ireland was the ultimate Rugby experience, featuring internationals against all four home nations. For three months The Seventh Wallabies of 1981/2, who had made sacrifices to participate which can hardly be understood today, were sustained by comradeship and hospitality as they travelled through Britain’s worst winter this century. The Running Game, a classic account of their experiences on and off the field, was a revelation. For the first time cameras were allowed into a Wallaby test match dressing room prior to and after the match. The use of previously unused camera techniques and slow motion montages, complemented by especially composed music and verse, provides a moving and exciting tribute to some of the great players of a bygone era. The uncompromising captain Tony Shaw, the inimitable Mark Loane, the new genius Mark Ella and stoic, veteran halfback John Hipwell are just a few of yesterday’s heroes who will thrill younger viewers and take older ones back to a glorious time.

THE AFRICAN CAMPAIGN
This intense and personal observation of the 1992 tour of South Africa documents the first by the Wallabies since 1969. With the apartheid restrictions lifted, the World Cup winners put their reputation on the line against the Springboks who had not been able to participate in the event held the previous year. “You are not the world champions until you beat us,” they were told. Three lead up games, in Potchefstroom, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, preceded a record breaking win by the Wallabies at Newlands Stadium. This was one of Australia’s finest teams with Kearns, Eales, Ofahengaue, Farr-Jones, Lynagh, Horan, Little and Campese, whose fiftieth test try sealed the game. Yet as interesting and exciting as the matches were a meeting with Nelson Mandela, a fun-filled but very emotional training clinic with youngsters in the black township outside Port Elizabeth and a performance by South Africa’s leading black choir, the Matthews Singers, staged especially for the Wallabies. Like its predecessor, The Running Game, this film puts you ‘on tour’ with a great sporting team.

So if your interested in ordering these films contact Haydn Keenan at Smart Street Films
at smartstreet@optusnet.com.au
The African Campaign is a great documentary, as I was one of the stars Ha Ha. You can see me running around in my prime here against the big Dutchmen of Western Traansvaal and Eastern Province. I will have to order one of the new DVD releases, as my VHS version is cactus. Fabs tells me he is flogging them for $30 each, an absolute bargain.

The poll has closed on Clive Woodward’s coaching, results were:
50% Hopeless Joke
32% Average
13% Excellent he won a World Cup